This special issue draws attention to the roles and responsibilities of knowledge producers, knowledge keepers, and food systems actors in managing and enhancing access to culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods in Indigenous communities in North America. By North Amer­ica, we mean all the regions and subregions, both geographic and cultural, in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the U.S.

We seek empirical, theoretical, or pedagogical contributions from academics and practitioners that inform policy and practice. We encourage manuscripts documenting interagency and/or nation-to-nation collaboration, as well as collaboration among public, nonprofit, private enterprises, and scholar/practitioner co-partners. We will also accept comparative work that includes other regions of the Global North and Global South if the comparison features a North American Indigenous community. Manuscripts closely examining processes as well as those that interrogate a failed or struggling policy, program, or project can also be very instructive. Areas of interest include but are not limited to:

The University of Arkansas School of Law will offer a “Tribal Governments & Business Entities” special topics course taught by dean Stacy Leeds (Cherokee) during the Winter Intersession. The registration deadline is January 2, 2018.

The course will survey the exercise of modern governmental authority in the United States including jurisdictional conflict and cooperation with state, local and federal governments. In addition to discussing legal and regulatory frameworks, the course will highlight business and economic growth opportunities and challenges.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The University of Arkansas School of Law’s Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative is hosting two Emerson National Hunger Fellows from the Congressional Hunger Center in Washington, D.C.

The center selected the initiative as a host site due to its focus on tribal policy reform, including regional food policy discussions at tribal communities across the United States and development of a model food code for use by tribal governments. This will be the first time the center has placed fellows in Arkansas.

The Congressional Hunger Center works to make issues of hunger a priority to policymakers in the United States government and to raise a new generation of leaders to address issues of hunger and poverty. Its mission is to train and inspire leaders who work to end hunger and to bridge the gap between grassroots efforts and national and international public policy to provide access to nutritious, affordable and culturally appropriate food.

“We are honored and delighted to host the visiting Hunger Fellows from this nationally prestigious program,” said Janie Hipp, director of the initiative. “Hunger is persistent within tribal communities throughout the United States with over 25 percent of all Native peoples relying daily upon federal feeding programs to address the health impacts of hunger and food insecurity.”

In some communities, the prevalence of food insecurity can rise to well over 50 percent. The initiative seeks to turn the corner on this humanitarian crisis through strong tribal and federal policies, integrated self-determination and self-governance and a deeper understanding of the connections between policies, resources, actions and outcomes.

“The Fellows we are working with will help us and others to better understand this landscape,” Hipp said.

The 2018 visiting fellows are Sarah Goldman from West Hartford, Connecticut, and Corey Malone-Smolla from Richmond, Virginia.

Goldman is founder of the Heart of the Heartland Program, a five-week summer program for undergraduate students that combines hands-on practical training with a policy, biology and business management curriculum. While at the initiative, she will convene roundtable discussions that will foster important intertribal discussion and collaboration so that tribes may come together to address national food policy while meeting their community needs around food, agriculture and nutrition.

“I’m drawn to the organization’s mission and relentless work toward allowing tribal governments to be the active agents in food systems change in Indian Country,” Goldman said. “I hope that — through my time at IFAI — I am able to become a reliable facilitator, advocate and source of information as I conduct policy roundtable discussions.”

Malone-Smolla developed her passion for food access as Yale University’s director of food recovery, where she coordinated the daily collection of leftover food from Yale’s dining halls to be delivered to soup kitchens in the New Haven area. Her fellowship will support the Model Comprehensive Food and Agriculture Code Project, which will create a model legal code for food and agriculture, hunger, nutrition, health and economic development. This model, along with an implementation process, will be shared with all tribes within the U.S. to aid development of localized economic strategies and food policy interventions.

“I hope to learn from everyone at the initiative the best ways to collaborate with individuals and communities across movements and justice initiatives.” Malone-Smolla said. “I see my work as aligning with the initiative’s goal of increasing involvement in disciplines relating to food and agriculture. I know that this opportunity will affirm and direct my desire to work for food justice for all.”

About the Congressional Hunger Center: Established in 1993, the center’s mission is to train and inspire leaders who work to end hunger and advocate public policies that create a food secure world. The staff and fellows are committed to fulfilling the goal of the former House Select Committee on Hunger, “to find real solutions to hunger and poverty.” It administers the Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows Program and the Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program.

About the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative: The initiative enhances health and wellness in tribal communities by advancing healthy food systems, diversified economic development and cultural food traditions in Indian Country. The initiative empowers tribal governments, farmers, ranchers and food businesses by providing strategic planning and technical assistance; by creating new academic and professional education programs in food systems and agriculture; and by increasing student enrollment in land grant universities in food and agricultural related disciplines.

About University of Arkansas School of Law: The University of Arkansas School of Law prepares students for success through a challenging curriculum taught by nationally recognized faculty, unique service opportunities and a close-knit community that puts students first. With alumni in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two territories and 20 countries, it has been ranked among the top 10 “Values in Legal Education” by the National Jurist magazine for four consecutive years and is among the top 42 public law schools, according to U.S. News and World Report.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.

Recently six Intertribal Agriculture Council Youth Ambassadors had the opportunity to travel to Billings, Montana, to attend the National US Cattlemen’s Association Producer Forum where they were a part of panel discussions about risk management and trade under the new presidential administration.

They also learned about sustainable antibiotic use in livestock, conservation practices and what retailers like to see. The youth had the opportunity to meet and and talk with individuals within the agriculture industry such as Kevin Hueser, the Senior Vice President – Beef Margin Management for Tyson Foods.

The youth participants also learned about new policy taking place at the Capitol and heard from US Senate and House of Representative members about legislation affecting the cattle industry.

The Summit, attended by IFAI Director Janie Simms Hipp and Policy Director Colby Duren, explores ways to drive investment to rural America to grow the economy, create jobs, and improve the quality of life.

Speakers and panel discussions will focus on:

– investing in basic infrastructure like building roads, schools, and hospitals and ensuring access to critical services like health care, water and wastewater, and broadband internet;

– fostering innovations that create new jobs and businesses in the energy, health care, agricultural economies; and

– strengthening a middle-class economy that honors our commitments to seniors and veterans while attracting the next generation of farmers and ranchers, young families, workers, and small business owners and entrepreneurs.

Roughly 60 million people reside in rural America, nearly 20 percent of the U.S. population. Rural America supply much of the food and energy and workforce that sustains our national economy. And yet there are barriers to economic opportunity for too many rural Americans.

AGENDA

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

902 Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC

8:30 – 9:00 am

Registration and Breakfast Reception

9:00 – 9:30 am

Opening Remarks by Senate Democratic Leadership

9:30 – 10:00 am

Remarks from Governor Terry McAuliffe, Virginia

10:00 – 11:00 am

Panel I: Health Care in Rural America

Moderator: Mary Wakefield, Former Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Students will learn how to further food sovereignty this summer during PATHS program

Danielle Antelope, an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe, is one of several tribal college students who will have a unique opportunity to spend six weeks at Montana State University this summer, earn some money, engage in hands-on lab work and learn how to advance food sovereignty—and health—in Indian country.

The United States Department of Agriculture has awarded Montana State University $280,000 over three years to support the PATHS, or “Pathways to Agriculture and Native foods, Tribal Health and Sovereignty,” program. Principal Investigator Holly Hunts, an associate professor in Montana State University’s College of Education, Health and Human Development, said: “This is an interdisciplinary effort to look at problems and solve them. We are exponentially smarter when we work together.”

Eric Birdinground, a senator in the legislative branch of the Crow Tribal government and chair of the tribe’s Health and Human Services Department, said an important feature of the PATHS program is that students will bring back what they learn to their community. Richard Little Bear, president of Chief Dull Knife College, sees another benefit as well. “Our students have a hard time leaving the college, and the reservation, so PATHS and similar programs provide a bridge to the four-year mainstream institutions.”

And of course the primarily focus of the program—agriculture and food sovereignty—are crucial. “The program will educate them about foods in general and about our own Native foods. That part is helpful because so many of us have gotten dependent on the Walmart system of distribution of our food,” Little Bear said.

This graphic explains what the PATHS program is. Montana State University/Facebook

Janie Simms Hipp, Chickasaw Nation, is founding director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas School of Law. She said the MSU program complements the work being done at her university, and she will be helping to implement the PATHS program. “There is a desperate need to have a strong group of students who are ready to step into extremely important tribal leadership roles as soon as possible,” she said, and this program will help train them.

Students will spend six weeks this summer at MSU where they will work in different labs, go on field trips to tribal agricultural projects, and engage in other creative learning experiences. When they return to their tribal colleges and universities, the program will stay connected with them for a full year until they come back to MSU for another six weeks next summer, at which point they should be ready to pursue a research interest of their own.

The research opportunity is what has Antelope’s attention. “I’m really excited about the research because when I was a junior in high school I did the MAP program at Bozeman. You go there for eight weeks and do research and take classes. That was a great time for me. So this time, six weeks, being on campus, being an adult, having my family with me. I’m really excited to get that campus life, the city—maybe I won’t be so scared when it comes time for me to leave to continue my higher education.” Antelope, 21, is working on her associate’s degree at Blackfeet Community College.

“Our goal is that they will want to finish a four-year degree in agriculture or food or nutrition or some health field. We’d be happy if they came to MSU,” Hunts said. The university would welcome more Native American students, especially in areas like cell biology and neuroscience and biochemistry, she said.

The PATHS program is open to students at any tribal college. The funding covers two cohorts of four to five students each, with each cohort attending the program for a total of 14 months beginning in the summer of 2017 and the summer of 2018. The program includes a $1,500 stipend for the summer, $1,500 during the academic year and another $1,500 the following summer. Additional funds cover housing, food during the summer sessions, in-state and out-of-state travel, lab costs and supplies, a total of over $14,000 per student over 14 months each will participate. Native American mentors who have successful track records at MSU in either food sovereignty, nutrition, agriculture or health will work with students throughout the program.

“In the second summer, we’ll go to Washington, D.C. so students can meet with the federal movers and shakers in agriculture,” Hunts said. “We want to make sure they are connected to policy makers and know how to get policy changed.”

Hipp said the Washington trip and introducing students to how the federal government makes policy is an essential part of getting them ready to serve their communities. “This component is especially important right now when USDA is getting reorganized and the president’s budget calls for literally doing away with some of the key programs that tribal governments have relied upon to build up the food sovereignty movement. We can’t stand by and say we’ll deal with it later,” she said.

Another immediate benefit of the program, Hunts said, is that “students will also be really employable by the end of the 14 months, with lab, data entry and library skills.”

Core members of the PATHS team at MSU are Hunts; David Sands, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology in the College of Agriculture; Ed Dratz, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the College of Letters and Science; Florence Dunkel, an associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology; and Claire Sands Baker, a longtime nonprofit consultant.

For more information, contact PATHSMSU@gmail.com or text 406-599-9457. Information is also available on Facebook.